Cooler Master's new mechanical keyboard, the QuickFire XT

The Cooler Master QuickFire XT comes in four different flavours of Cherry, Blue, Red, Brown and Green. You can pick your preferred type of mechanical switch, from low resistance to strong as well as a click or a non-click feedback for a keypress. It can also function either as USB or PS/2 for those who like to push more than a half dozen buttons at once and looks very familiar, lacking the sometimes ridiculous amount of extra media buttons. You can easily swap keys around for those who prefer bright red WSAD or who want to incorporate the two unique CM buttons. Legit Reviews has the full story here.

"As expected with mechanical keyboards, typing on the QuickFire XT was an overwhelmingly positive experience as a result of Cherry’s switch mechanism. Individuals have their own preferences and so it’s not fair to rate or rank the switch types. Cooler Master avoids the issue of forced switch selection by making the QuickFire XT available in four Cherry MX switches..."

Everything about this keyboard (not having actually put my hands on it, at least) screams Leopold/Filco and closer to the same price (Leopolds go for about $90-$100 and come in a tenkeyless version, a blacked-out version, a white version, and with every combination of the many switches from red, blue, green, brown, to black, clear, and so on).

I wouldn't be surprised if it's just the Leopold with a branded name slapped on (the Leopold was designed by the same engineer who designed the beloved and more expensive Filco keyboards).

Good to see that big names are starting to not just go for the mechanical keyboard gimmick, but actually starting to appeal to what solid keyboard enthusiasts have been wanting and buying for ages -- keyboards without gimmicks, without media buttons, and without extraneous bullshit that only serves the "ermagherd, I'm buyin' RAZR products guys!" crowd.